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Put patient medication information at your fingertips

Ambulatory Safety Monitor, January 22, 2003

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If you're prescribing medication, locating all the necessary patient information can be tough if you're not organized. When it comes to organizing that information--such as age, weight, diagnosis, etc.--start with your paper or electronic charts.

"I was holding a medical record the other day for a patient who was in for ambulatory surgery. There were seven different places in the chart to record allergies. Each should contain the exact same information," says Richard Kaine, MD, a consultant for Quality Management Resources in Hoschton, GA. "But that's nearly impossible, since patients may remember new things each time a caregiver asks about their allergies."

A solution: Designate a single spot in the chart so caregivers can easily see the critical information necessary when prescribing medication.

All of the patient information you'll need when prescribing medications generally comes in the following four categories, Kaine says:

• Food-drug interactions
• Drug-drug interactions
• Special handling
• Critical side effects

Tip: Busy caregivers handle a lot of medication. Make it easier for them by placing color-coded dots on the appropriate compartments in the Pyxis machine drawers--an essential safeguard if the nurse rather than the pharmacist must give the medication, says Kaine. For example, a yellow dot means the patient shouldn't take the medication with certain food while a purple dot indicates the drug has side effects. Post a quick guide to the dots nearby.

"When you open the [Pyxis automatic dispensing machine] drawer and see a section with a yellow dot, you'll know to watch out for food-drug interactions," Kaine says

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